I am rewiring a 55 year old house, leaving the existing (100amp main, 15amp lighting breakers) service panel which appears to be 10-20 years old and wired correctly (grounds, etc.).

I have run all new 14/2 w/gnd NM romex to new plastic switch boxes on the first floor from the unfinished basement (ranch style house- easy!) and all the old metal boxes are now replaced with new plastic ones in the walls.

Now, in running switch legs up to the attic to the ceiling fixtures, I am debating on whether or not to leave the old metal boxes in place as they appear to be sound and the removal of them would be quite evasive (damn things are nailed to the FRONTS of the studs and the removal involves large holes in the drywall). It is noted that said ceiling boxes are small (rectangular single-gang switch-box sized) but appear adequate to hold light fixtures securely for at least another 55 years. They all have (pardon lack of expertice for correct terminology) a screw that holds a clamp on each end of the box that can clamp 2 wires at the same time on each end (4 holes total in each box).

The question: is it OK to use the aforementioned old metal boxes with the new NM romex? And considering the "clamp down" method used by them? Any other questions and comments to the project are welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Brian

 

Sure, it's okay to leave the metal boxes. I'm surprised you replaced the ones you did. Was that just to get more cubic inches? How many cubic inches were the old boxes?

 

Be sure to ground the old metal boxes with a grounding screw or strap.

 

John- they were the wrong color No, seriously, a couple of dumb reasons. Some switches mounted below and some above the mostly typical (for the house) height of 48" centers, a few bad locations of duplex outlets (for my own liking) and a bedroom light switch mounted behind a door, an office area that needed more plugs anyway, and then i just stopped thinking about what needed to go and what needed to stay and just yanked them all out. The clawhammer was feeling left out lately anyway. If I was working for someone I probably would have gotten fired for taking that much time to remove all those!

Also, thanks, marcerrin, for the reminder. I probably would have remembered but it was good to see it in english again.

Brian

 

Just one note you said the house was 55 yrs. Old.
If the old wiring method was BX or Armored cable you will have to at least change the clamps. You can not use clamps listed for armored cable to hold NM-B